Heritage Newsletter Issue 12

Passionate About Trams!

H

eritage trams. What are they? Where and when can we see them? To browsers in Tower Models of Cookson Street or for those visiting the toy shop while waiting for the Fleetwood ferry, shiny colourful heritage trams are as familiar a sight as the sleek new glossy trams that arrived with the new tracks in the last few years to replace the old cream and green vehicles. Some of the most famous heritage trams known to residents and tourists are the rocket, ship and gondola trams which roar up and down new the tram-tracks each year below the miles of overhead attractions and past the promenade tableaux during the Illuminations. There are others.

A couple of months ago, Martin Gurr, tram-lover and long-term co-ordinator of the tramway promotions was at Blackpool Transport’s Rigby Road depot to let Heritage Newsletter in on some trade secrets.

Martin has been passionate about trams since the age of five when he came to Blackpool on holiday from his London home. So keen is he, that Martin is now the Operations Manager for Blackpool Heritage Trams.

Martin, who before moving to Blackpool in March was a volunteer at the Crich Tram Museum in Derbyshire, is also a driver for Virgin Trains and now works alongside Brian Lindop, the Head of Heritage Trams.

Martin is employed, as a volunteer, to organise staff training and rotas and the number of staff and trams required each day that the trams are operational. Last year the vintage tram service ran for just nine days but this year they have run every weekend and Bank Holidays between North Pier and the Pleasure Beach from Easter until the end of the Illuminations.

Apparently, there are at least a further twenty-three vintage, unusual, old and very old heritage trams in assorted shapes and sizes living in the Hopton Road tram depot, the oldest dating from about 1901. You may have caught sight of some of them in the recent September celebrations for their 130th anniversary, managed by Martin, or perhaps at the annual trams festival in Fleetwood. The heritage trams run alongside the sixteen new, modern flexibility tram service which arrived in 2012 following the upgrade of eleven miles of track and a new depot.

Blackpool Tramway is one of the oldest electric tramways in the world dating back to 1885. It opened on 29th September of that year and originally ran between Cocker Street and Dean Street. Blackpool is only one of three places which operate double decker trams, the others being Alexandria in Egypt and Hong Kong.

Martin oversees teams made up of Blackpool Transport employees and about twenty-eight volunteers, some of whom travel huge distances across Britain to drive, ride

ISSUE 12 - DECEMBER 2015

Photo: Andrew Hazlehurst

on, tinker or mess about with or just to be near their favourite models for the holidays or if lucky, throughout the Blackpool tourism season. He explained that each heritage tram is a unique personality with its own quirks, even within the same model range. While most remain anonymous, a few bear their own names. The Princess Alice is an elegant open top double decker christened following a royal visit. One tram is named after local film star musician, George Formby, another is named for a retired Blackpool Transport employee and the Walter Luff remembers a manager of General Motors whose daughter attended the inaugural ceremony. There is a Lytham heritage tram, as seen on a classic transport poster and three of Blackpool’s familiar standard boat trams live in San Francisco. Elton John is believed to be a fan, keeping a Melbourne tram in his back garden.

There are monthly and yearly examinations to be passed and lessons to be learned as, while Transport employees undergo training and work with trams ordinary and not so ordinary all year round, the army of volunteers, several on holiday from the Tramway Museum in Crick in Devon, must learn to drive, conduct, repair and restore Blackpool’s stock of heritage trams, some also being responsible for administration, others for promotions. The volunteers are easy to work with, according to Martin, who appreciates they work with heritage trams from choice and acknowledges their passion for their subjects. The professional standards are therefore very high. Not only must all the heritage trams always look beautiful and well preserved but crucial technical considerations require a sound knowledge of heights loaders, paint types, tracks, rails, winders and other mysterious trammy terms.

The fleet of bright heritage trams parading up and down the promenade this year together with the new modern trams rejuvenating the coast, remind everyone of local heritage, business and tourism but also recall the poignant history of the older, rickety yet ever reliable trams crashing through Blackpool’s winter rains and winds throughout the year. One-hundred and eight of those older trams were sold to use in other locations around Britain or sold for scrap and their faster, quieter, smoother replacements are expected to break even in around ten years. Meanwhile, the Hopton Road depot is open on request to visitors fascinated by the old heritage trams and guided tours can be arranged to this all-weather attraction conveniently close to the town centre.

Lynne Charoenkitsuksun & Diana Holden

Blackpool Heritage News is created by Blackpool Heritage Champions to celebrate and promote Blackpool’s heritage, Blackpool Heritage News is about you, your past and your present.

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T

he first recording of this still popular song was made in the USA in 1934 but it was the arrival of Father Christmas that Blackpool children anticipated.

In the 1940s two special post boxes, one in the CoOperative Emporium which occupied the land on which Debenhams is now built, and one in RHO Hills directly behind the Tower where Primark is now, gave local children a chance to put in requests for the items they hoped to find in their Christmas stockings. The task of replying to each one, where an address was given, was undertaken by Ronnie Smithson on behalf of Father Christmas. Mr. Smithson kept every child’s letter whether on smart notepaper, an old electricity bill or torn fragment of paper in a series of scrapbooks.

The replies he sent out were always on ‘gaily coloured Article author Kathryn Thompson illuminated notepaper’. on Santa’s knee The letters show a great deal of selflessness from the children. Many youngsters put in requests on behalf of younger brothers and sisters who were too young to write for themselves. One little girl wanted some ‘Nilelongs’ (nylons) for her Mother. A touching letter from a girl in Bispham stated ‘The best Christmas present you can bring me is a good bottle of medicine that will cure my Daddy’s nasty cough. Please don’t bring him any cigarettes as it makes his cough worse’. The same two Blackpool stores hosted the embodiment of the very important gentleman and his consort. Here there was opportunity for children, whose parents could continued for many years. A photograph from afford to pay the charge, to make their requests face 1964 shows a beautifully costumed retinue at to face.

North Station ready to follow the usual route An advertisement in the Gazette and Herald in to the Bank Hey Street store. In 1964 Lewis’s December 1947 invited children to visit ‘Reindeerland’ store opened and, with it, a further opportunity which was situated in the Co-Operative Emporium’s to experience some seasonal magic and a Albert Hall in the basement of the store. Here for 3d chance to put in a timely word about hoped a child could experience a ‘sea plane for toys. Lewis’s, however, took a trip’ and meet Father Christmas. less traditional approach to grotto In the same year, RHO Hills’s Father decoration. A year or two after the Christmas made a more spectacular store opened, Batman, and the The Olympia at the Winter arrival. Alighting from a train at more aptly-named Robin, was the Gardens was used by the North Station the ‘man in red’ and his chosen theme.

Royal Mail as an extra parcel attendants proceeded down Talbot The children of today no sorting office in the run up to Road and along Market Street before doubt have electronic ways Christmas taking up residence in the store’s of communicating with Father ‘Dreamland’ grotto.

Christmas but I am sure that The following year the grotto themes nothing could be more exciting were ‘Toy Town’ in the Co-op and ‘The Land Where than seeing that gaily coloured illuminated Christmas Begins’ in Hills. letter dropping through the letterbox.

The tradition of the RHO Hills Christmas procession Kathryn Thompson

Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town

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R

ecently I had the pleasure of meeting Caroline Hall, whose official job title is Collections Manager for Blackpool Council, to discuss her mammoth task of caring for and documenting the various collections held by the Council and making them accessible to the general public.

I asked Caroline to share a bit about her background and how she landed this great job. Caroline’s family are from Blackpool, and on finishing her Masters of Arts in Heritage Management she returned home. Between then and now she has worked with collections under several different job titles. As Events Manager for the Admission All Classes Project she worked with Professor Vanessa Toulmin and the National Fairground Archive in delivering a programme of events including a recreation of sideshows in the pavilion theatre, a variety show at the Grand Theatre and the first Carnival Ball in the Tower Ballroom as part of Showzam.

Caroline smiles as she recalls a fond memory,

Caroline’s Mission

Did you know?

This year Heritage Open Days welcomed over 7400 visitors ‘across Blackpool and the Fylde Coast

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These collections belong to the public and they should be able to access them, but how can they if they do not know what they contain? behind the scenes, amidst the mayhem whilst preparing for the curtain to go up, one of the performers, a rather large bearded man, ran out of his dressing room in his shorts holding up a pair of leather lederhosen. “Do you have a needle that will go through leather?”, “Not on me!” Caroline replied. At which point he demonstrated his problem by showing the giant hole in the seat of the clothing. The gentleman in question just had to wear his shorts in the end but his facial expression remains firmly within her mind.

Following Showzam Caroline went to Keswick Museum and Art Gallery applied for funding to the Heritage Lottery Fund for £1.8million, to save the museum from closure which was successful. The museum has recently won small Visitor Attraction of the year at Cumbria Tourism Awards.

Caroline’s current post is funded by the John Ellerman Foundation who see Blackpool’s collections as important enough to deserve specialist advice and care. Caroline supports the care of the Grundy Art Gallery Collection, Cyril Critchlow, Illuminations, Tourism, Tower Company and Local History Collections.

The collections come from various places and have built up over time. What this means, Caroline tells me, is that Blackpool has an important and unique record of the history of the town and of popular culture. One of her favourite items is a small collection held by the Local History Centre of censored Blackpool postcards. What makes it fascinating is the

A Christmas Blackpool Ghost Story

O choice the censors made of which postcards to let through and which to ban.

Her job may appear dull to most people but Caroline is passionate about it. “These collections belong to the public and they should be able to access them, but how can they if they do not know what they contain?” Her task over the next two years is to work with volunteers to find out. By creating an inventory of all the collections, those lists can then be published online and people will able to discover exactly what they have at their fingertips but it is a laborious process, going through each item and recording the details of each one. Everyone loves seeing collections on line when they go on museum websites but in order to do that, someone first had to sit down, list, document and digitize them and that is the process Caroline is underway with.

For Caroline the most exciting future for the collections is the Blackpool Museum Project. A museum means that people will be able to see the collections, explore and browse the history of the town. It will also showcase to the rest of the country what a wonderful array of collections we have that reflect Blackpool’s incredible past.

John Ramsbottom Some of the collections are already online and can be viewed on Your Paintings website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/) and The Illuminations can be viewed at https://www.blackpool.gov.uk/Residents/ Libraries-arts-and-heritage/Blackpool-heritage/Collection-and-archive/ Illuminations-collection.aspx

n Christmas Eve 1919 a gruesome discovery was made on the sandhills close to the former North Manchester Convalescent Home on Clifton Drive. The gruesome discovery was of a “fashionably attired beautiful woman” who at first was thought to have been stabbed. But the subsequent discovery by two children of a revolver and four spent shells showed that she had, in fact, been shot several times.

The woman in question was Mrs Kathleen Alice Breaks of Bradford who, after the breakdown of her marriage, had been attending a Blackpool Hydro hotel and had met a Frederick Rothwell Holt from Fairhaven. He was receiving treatment there for injuries sustained during his stint in the army as a Lieutenant with the Fourth Battalion Loyal North Lancs Regiment.

They formed a relationship, although it had obviously turned sour over the festive period and resulted in the struggle and eventual murder of Kathleen on the sandhills on Christmas Eve. Holt was arrested later the same day by acting Detective John Sherlock and charged with murder on Christmas Day. The case attracted a great deal of media attention, locally, nationally and even internationally, most notably as Holt was defended by celebrity barrister, Sir Edward Marshall Hall.

After a five day trial he was convicted of murder. Huge crowds attended Manchester Assize Court to witness the proceedings and the sentencing. Holt presented some evidence of correspondence between himself and Mrs Breaks which revealed Holt’s passionate nature, on this basis he lodged an appeal of insanity which was rejected.

On the 13th April 1920, Holt was taken to Strangeways Prison for hanging, which was carried out by famed public executioner John Ellis. Over 1000 people attended outside the prison, many of whom sided with Holt. It was said that he never showed any remorse and ate and slept well in his final days, walking calmly to his demise and never making any confession of his guilt.

Now it is said that on cold, still winter nights all along the ridge of the St Annes sand hills, there are tales of the screams of a woman being heard piercing the night. On other nights the ear-shattering sound of gunfire is heard, usually causing a call to police that ends in a false alarm. In fact, so frequent were these calls in the first couple of decades following the event that, in time, the police, whilst always following calls up, made it less and less of a priority to investigate especially if these disturbances heard were around Christmas time.

Nowadays, whilst these incidents are less frequent than earlier in the last century still, from time to time, the screams of a woman are heard piercing the cold night air, the gunshot is still reported to have been clearly heard and more worryingly, the ghostly figure of a “fashionably attired beautiful woman”, is seen wandering along the crest of the sandhills, apparently in great distress and looking for the lover, she will now never find.

Merry Christmas! And don’t have nightmares!

David Evans

015 has been an exciting year for us at Lytham Hall. The work in the South Prospect garden has made a big difference to the visitors, who enjoy strolling down the newly-built paths and race each other up the Mount.

This wasn’t possible before, as the area was completely covered by trees, which obliterated the views over Lytham and the parkland.

Now we need to generate income to be able to plant the borders according to our designs, and bring some colour to that area of the garden. Research has been on-going and we have learnt that this area was, in fact, called The Paradise Garden, bordered by the Paradise Wall. During the work we even dug up two Roman coins from the time of Emperor Gallienus (AD253 – 268).

Preparation for the Hall restorations have continued through the year with bat surveys taking place and specific paint samples taken. Research revealed up to twenty layers of paint on the window sills, and paint expert, Nigel Leaney, was able to show us the original colours the architect John Carr had in mind when he designed Lytham Hall. We experimented how best to take off the paint and have had the ochre colouring up around the North Entrance for a couple of months now. It seems a radical departure from the twentieth century white paint contrasting with the red brick but it gives the Hall a soft glow which is quite pleasing.

We have seen a host of popular events taking place in the parkland from the welcome

An Update From Lytham Hall return of outdoor theatre, Lytham Club Day, Classic Cars and Mini Meet, to newcomers such as the outdoor cinema experience with picnic cinema and our Secret Door and Trail in the parkland. We are currently in the throes of Halloween and firmingup the events for 2016.

As I write, the restoration of the Hall is taking a step closer to starting. The tenders for the external restoration have been received and we expect to appoint the principal contractor before Christmas. Careful negotiations will take place after that to programme the repairs to the roof, gutters, stonework and windows starting in the New Year. In the meantime, we need to make the Hall ready for the external works which includes packing up the sensitive parts of the collection. We are also going to look at the archaeology in the Jacobean parts of the Hall before the scaffolding goes up, and hope to discover more about the Jacobean Hall and its predecessor, the Priory.

This being a Heritage Lottery funded project, we have the challenge of keeping the Hall open to visitors as the work takes place thus allowing visitors to see what is happening. It will be a period of discovery but at the moment, we cannot be sure how often we can open the Hall to the public.

What is certain is that it won’t be an ordinary visit to a country house and that hard hats maybe involved.

John Hornyak, grounds volunteer: This year the grounds volunteers have seen a welcome milestone, where the grounds clearance has been followed by the first planting of trees in zones of the cleared areas. In particular we have reinstated the Cedar of Lebanon on the South Prospect with a new one (the original one blew down in the 1930s!). Other significant planting have been a shelterbelt screen of mixed trees to encourage wildlife and hawthorn hedging on the boundaries.

The South Prospect is also improving with the establishment of a large semi-circular yew hedge, a new bridge, re-creation of the parterre and the planting of heritage varieties of apples against the Monks Wall.

The next 12 months will see a significant increase in the planting of trees and shrubs in the grounds which will complement the expansion of the path network.